These tiny Iris grow prolifically around my mountain holler. Their shades vary from pale blue to a deeper purple. Dwarf crested Iris growing wild can be found from New York to Florida and as far west as Arkansas.
Their leaves are the same sword like shape found on large Bearded Iris-just in miniature form.
Dwarf Crested Iris usually grow in small clumps-you can see the rain we had last week almost washed the blooms right off these. Wild Dwarf Iris are like Bloodroot in the sense-that by mid Summer they’ve completely disappeared waiting till next Spring to make their presence known again.
When The Deer Hunter and I first moved into our house and I began looking for flowers on the cheap for our yard-I transplanted a few clumps of Wild Dwarf Iris into my flower beds. My Uncle said they’d never live-he was wrong they’re still going strong all these years later.
There are also Wild Dwarf Crested Iris that have white blooms-I’ve never seen one-have you?
Tipper
16 Comments
Tipper
March 20, 2012 at 9:24 amThank you for the comment-neat that you found a perfect ring of wild iris! I have never seen one. Around here folks would say you found a fairy ring : )
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Laure Clemons
March 19, 2012 at 6:57 pmWe found a ring – a perfect circle – of wild dwarf crested irises growing near our mountaintop home in Northeast Alabama. Have transplanted them to our garden. Has anyone ever seen them growing in a ring before? It was so perfect we thought it was a discarded artificial flower wreath!
Dan Heimsoth
May 24, 2010 at 3:16 pmI saw a couple wild white dwarf crested iris on Martins Ridge trail in the Smokys a couple weeks ago. Took some photos of one of them. They were the first white ones I had ever seen.
Rick
May 9, 2010 at 12:12 pmThat is a beautiful flower, of course purple is my favorite color.
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Fishing Guy
May 9, 2010 at 11:36 amTipper: They are so lovely, probably that is where the big Iris come from.
canned quilter
May 9, 2010 at 8:59 amI have seen the white Iris in Mo. Aren’t the small flowers delicate and almost orchid looking?
Eva M. Wike, Ph.D.
May 9, 2010 at 6:02 amTipper: You will be surprized to know that I have a few white crested iris and lots of the blue. Today for Mother’s Day I will dig some of the blue to give to my daughter-in-law. She wants to plant flowers around her cabin on top of Rich Mt. in the Smokies. I think these iris will be perfect! She planted bulbs last year and the bears/something ate everyone of them. So I will give her some daffodils – as I don’t think anything will bother them!
Becky
May 8, 2010 at 10:59 pmWe don’t have those growing around here. Atleast not that I’ve seen. But I’ll be on the lookout for them.
I just love it when I DO find something that another blogger has posted and I’ve never seen.
Wish me luck! tee hee
Deb
May 8, 2010 at 10:22 pmLovely delicate flowers. I hadn’t heard of wild Iris. I wish we had them in Iowa.
Vicki Lane
May 8, 2010 at 8:08 pmOne of my favorite wildflowers!
georgie
May 8, 2010 at 7:03 pmWhat a beautiful flower! We have regular white and purple iris here but not the dwarf crested iris.
Miss Cindy
May 8, 2010 at 6:54 pmWhat beautiful little flowers!
Mother Nature has richly blessed our part of the world. I walked down a wooded path with a friend today and we talked about all the wild and edible plants and flowers under our feet.
What a joy these mountains are!
Mike McLain
May 8, 2010 at 5:33 pmI used to love to find these little irises in the woods when I was a kid! Such beautiful, delicate little miniatures of the domestic iris. I don’t recall every seeing a white wild iris, though.
Anastasia
May 8, 2010 at 5:00 pmOh, those dwarf irises in your photos look so lovely! My mum has recently planted some kind of irises in her garden but their colour is light blue – not really violet.
Sandra
May 8, 2010 at 3:23 pmthey are beautifuf and I love wild flowers best of all. you are right, they are in a lot of our states, i have seen them here in florida many times and in GA
MissFiFi
May 8, 2010 at 1:28 pmThose irises are lovely. It is funny, what some folks consider weeds here in NJ, violets, I think are beautiful.
If we were living in Asheville I would be all over that event. I hope it does really well!